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33 MacSpeech DictateChapter 6 — Controlling Your Mac
want the program to launch when you start your Macintosh,
do one of the following:
- Control-click or hold down the mouse button on the
MacSpeech Dictate icon in the Dock. Select “Open
at Login” from the menu.
- Drag the MacSpeech Dictate icon into the Login
Items section of the Accounts panel in System
Preferences.
Controlling Buttons
MacSpeech Dictate can operate most buttons that appear in
dialog boxes regardless of the mode it is in. You can verbally
press a button by saying:
“Press [button name]”
For example, if a dialog box appears on the screen asking if
you want to save a document, the choices are usually “Don’t
Save,” “Cancel,” and “Save.” You can press these buttons us-
ing your voice by saying Press Don’t Save, Press Cancel,
or Press Save.
MacSpeech Dictate only knows about buttons that were
programmed in accordance with Apple’s programming
guidelines. If you try to press a button by voice and it doesn’t
respond, it is probably because the program you are using
has not told Mac OS X about its buttons.
Managing Commands and Command
Sets
MacSpeech Dictate manages a number of different files
that have commands, words, and text macros. These files
are known as command sets. Some of these sets contain
commands that work everywhere on your Mac; these are
global commands. Others are only active while in a particular
application, and are called application-specific commands.
To access these commands, choose Commands… from the
Tools menu. The Command List window opens, as shown in
Figure 6-3.
Figure 6-3
By default, all commands are set as “Active” when you start
MacSpeech Dictate. A particular command can be deacti-
vated by clearing the check mark in the Active column next
to the set.
Global Commands
MacSpeech Dictate’s Global commands are available in any
application, whenever the microphone is active.
Dictation Commands
MacSpeech Dictate’s Dictation commands are available
when MacSpeech Dictate is in Dictation Mode. These are
general commands for positioning the insertion point, con-
trolling capitalization, and deleting the last spoken word or
phrase.
Types of Commands
There are several types of commands in MacSpeech
Dictate:
• AppleScript: This allows an AppleScript to be
executed when you speak its name. MacSpeech
Dictate has a built-in script editor for editing and
testing scripts.
• TextMacro:Atextmacrotypesapredenedblock
of text when you speak its name. The text can be
a whole form letter or just an address; in fact it
can be any amount of text.
• Keyboard Shortcut: This is a type of command
using AppleScript, that executes keystroke com-
binations, and deserves special mention. You will
recognize these by their names and functions
equivalent to keyboard commands such as Copy
(Cmd-C), Select All (Cmd-A), Undo (Cmd-Z), etc.
But you can also create or modify your own com-
mands that perform other keystroke combinations.
• Application: These are commands that open a
specicapplication.Youwouldonlyneedtouse